{"id":221938,"date":"2026-07-25T05:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T05:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/221938\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T05:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T05:48:10","slug":"syrias-us216-billion-rebuild-offers-a-hormuz-alternative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/221938\/","title":{"rendered":"Syria\u2019s US$216 billion rebuild offers a Hormuz alternative"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For years, <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/syria?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Syria<\/a> was a wound the world watched fester: a country carved up by war, sanctioned into isolation and reduced to a byword for state collapse.Its economy needs US$216 billion to rebuild, according to World Bank estimates. This month, for the first time since the fall of the Assad regime <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/week-asia\/politics\/article\/3289972\/fall-syrias-bashar-al-assad-catches-middle-east-powers-and-west-guard?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">in December 2024<\/a>, it began to look like it might actually get there.On July 8, the government of <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/ahmed-al-sharaa?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ahmed al-Sharaa<\/a> \u2013 a former jihadi commander turned president \u2013 established a supreme constitutional court. Four days later, it convened the new national parliament.Together, these acts set in motion the process needed to build a post-Assad state, spurring Washington to announce on July 8 that it would lift its long-standing designation of Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism, following a third face-to-face meeting between Sharaa and US President <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/donald-trump?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Donald Trump<\/a> on the sidelines of a <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/nato?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Nato<\/a> summit in Ankara.<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"US President Donald Trump (right) shakes hands with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Ankara, Turkey, on July 8. Photo: Reuters\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/65fff7aa-7097-4194-bd6e-dfc5e422b1db_caf1b8c2.jpg\" title=\"US President Donald Trump (right) shakes hands with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Ankara, Turkey, on July 8. Photo: Reuters\"\/>US President Donald Trump (right) shakes hands with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Ankara, Turkey, on July 8. Photo: Reuters<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">That decision and the impending removal of associated US sanctions clear the way for Syria to rejoin the global financial system, without which the job of national reconstruction cannot begin in earnest.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">After 14 years of civil war, the country\u2019s infrastructure lies in ruins. Its institutions are embryonic and its politics still combustible. What it has, instead, is its location at the ancient crossroads of trade between Asia and Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For years, Syria was a wound the world watched fester: a country carved up by war, sanctioned into&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[30],"tags":[672,11542,42088,1711,8241,5277,1394,670,38,54,100,102,94,37,63746,95],"class_list":["post-221938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-syria","tag-ahmed-al-sharaa","tag-ankara","tag-atlantic-council","tag-baghdad","tag-baniyas","tag-basra","tag-chevron","tag-damascus","tag-donald-trump","tag-europe","tag-hezbollah","tag-hormuz","tag-iraq","tag-israel","tag-j-p-morgan","tag-syria"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116979047415024555","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}